What I used to call my "crusade" was to get certain magicians on video. One of these was Roy Walton. I tried, when I lived in the U.S., to enlist some British friends who I knew were friendly with Roy to help: John Derris, Peter Duffie, Fergus Roy and Gordon Bruce.

Nada.

Then I moved to England about 11 years ago and began nagging Roy myself. No.

A few years ago I saw Roy at a dinner given by the European Magic Collectors Association, which I had addressed with a paper on Karl Fulves. I asked Roy yet again about a video, telling him what a loss it would be to future card men not to have a record of his fine work. Roy smiled and told me that if I asked him again he would cease being my friend.

Whoops!

I talked to Roy's wife, Jean Davenport, and she said that Roy woulbn't discuss it with her either.

Roy Walton has generously provided the Magic Community with books and pamphlets detailing most all of his magic creations including his philosophy and insights into card magic at a level beyond most of our understanding.

I applaud his decision not to produce a video or DVD which would reduce his work, his lifetimes work, to just something to COPY. As it is with what he offers in print we get the opportunity to STUDY this work.

Of course it would be wonderful to sit back and watch him perform on our screens and then what?

Would we marvel at his creativity and return at various stages in our lives to revisit, learning something new every time?...... probably not. Certainly not as often as we would with a book. Maybe he considers he is doing future generations of magicians a greater service by steering them down the road of studying his work, page by page, rather than pressing pause/play with a remote control.

I agree that Mr Walton has given us a lot of wonderful magic, The complete Walton 1 & 2 are wonderful books. I actually don't believe that a teaching DvD is something that one should study instead of a book. But at the same time I personally love to watch a creator perform he´s/her´s creations. And i also agree that one should study what has been published instead of looking for something that dosen´t exist.

Roy has some great stories. I have only met him about 3 times. But he has an interesting story for any topic under discussion.

I asked him once if he ever met John Ramsay? He said he knew him when he was younger and was a huge fan. In fact he felt John Ramsay was the best magician he ever saw.

He went on to say that towards the end of his life - Ramsay's doctor told him to stop smoking cigars.

But Ramsay needed his cigar to help with the misdirection for his tricks. Often he would place the cigar in the ashtray or reach into his pocket for a match at a crucial moment in a trick.

Eventually - Ramsay quit the cigars but started carrying round a fake one instead. Just so he could still use the same rhythm when performing magic. Otherwise Ramsay felt he would have to relearn all his magic and come up with new ways of building in misdirection to the effects.

Roy followed up by mentioning that Ramsay's favourite place to perform was behind the counter of the shop he worked in. Since he could use the open cash register to secretly ditch coins.

In one conversation - the subject of IBIDEM came up. Roy joked that since he had a 'one-man special' in the last ever issue - it was his poor magic tricks that killed off the magazine.

I remember asking him about the bottom deal and Roy telling me he preferred to use an unpublished method by Fred Robinson. One assumes that method is now in print since a few years later - Peter Duffie wrote a big book on Fred Robinson's card magic.

I asked him once about Lubor Fiedler and Walton agreed he was a genius. Roy spoke about seeing him perform at a magic convention. During a trick - Fiedler would have a card selected and returned to the deck.

Fiedler would then crawl under the table and find the selected card. It turns out that the cards had a special ink on the back which made them glow in the dark after they had been exposed to light!

Around this time in the conversation - Roy noticed the way the ink was lying on a playing card and how it seemed to disappeared from certain angles. And immediately he started wondering how this could be applied to magic. It is so long ago - I forget the exact details of what it was that caught his attention. But it was a tiny peek for me at the curiosity that is so often associated with creativity.

An interesting thing that links Elmsley, Walton and Fulves is that they all worked in the early years of the computer industry. It makes one wonder if there is a link between the problem solving involved in computer programming and the problem solving involved in creating card tricks?

Anyway - when I asked Walton about Alex Elmsley he told me an amazing story. Apparently Walton started at a computer company the same day that Elmsley left.

And then a follow-up story was of the time Fulves was visiting the company for work and was annoyed that Elmsley had left since it meant he couldn't spend time with him whilst at work.

I forget the exact details - but it was something like that.

I once asked a general question about what inspired him to invent his card tricks. Interestingly – he mentioned he was inspired by a lot of the classic silent comedies.

Buster Keaton, WC Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and so on. You can see a glimpse of this in some of the titles that Roy gives to his tricks. But I could never get much clarification on this point. Also - silent comedies often show funny (but ingenious) solutions to slapstick situations. So perhaps that sort of thinking would help him look at problems in a new light?

Roy ended up running Tam Shepherds in Glasgow because his wife was the daughter of one of the Davenports who owned the famous shop in London. I remember meeting his daughter in the shop and she was only a few years older than me. And in my head I had this mad fantasy of marrying a chick just so I could get close to the father-in-law, so that I could steal all his unpublished magic notebooks. lol

As it happens - Roy mentioned that he didn't really keep an archive of unpublished effects. Although he had notes lying around. He just seemed to always be focusing on whatever magic problem interested him at that moment in time.

That´s a wonderful post Joe Mckay I have read your tribute to Walton and it was a wonderful tribute, i have actually read it more than once. By the way i think your blog is great - a lot of interesting topics concerning card magic.

John Ramsay smoked cigarettes, not cigars and he did not use his cash register to ditch coins, but years ago grocer`s shops had large drawers under the counters which held the likes of salt and sugar. John would have one of these partly open so that he could secretly drop coins and even eggs silently into them. He used to say he did a Slydini act standing up.

John Bowden wrote:Roy Walton has generously provided the Magic Community with books and pamphlets detailing most all of his magic creations including his philosophy and insights into card magic at a level beyond most of our understanding.

I have both the older and recent reprints of The Complete Walton and remember paying for all four books.

Joe's treatise on Walton in the Double Deal blog is one of the best magic essays I've ever read.

The principal of holding something visible as you hide something in your hand is wonderful. In the older books like for instans Sleight of hand (E. Sachs) and Secrets of conjuring and magic (J.E. Robert-Houdin) that principal to me is treated as a fundamental principal of magic. As we have seen i the posts above, it dosen´t have to bee a magic wand, but at the same time it seems to me that the principal has been forgotten today. In the Feints and Temps of Harry Riser, Mr Riser puts that principal to a wonderful use in The two coin interlude plus (page: 43-51).

You beat me to it. I was going to relate the facts about the drawers behind the counter. You had told me.

I had the pleasure a few years ago of giving a short presentation about a convoluted string of events that tied Laurel & Hardy to the Magic Castle. Upon hearing of his interest I was able to get a write up to Roy.

I have met Jerry Sadowitz, Alex Elmsley and Roy Walton. And looking outside of card magic - I have met Lubor Fiedler and Angelo Carbone.

And something that links these brilliant creators (the very best in their particular field of magic) is a humbleness. And an utter disinterest in hearing praise. They are always more excited talking about the work of somebody else than they are in hearing praise about themselves.

It always seems the very best in any field (whether in magic or not) have an inner calm and a total lack of ego.

Matthew Field wrote:John Bowden: I told Roy he did not have to perform. I just wanted a video record of this great man. I had suggested him conversing with Duffie and Bruce.

How much would you give for a video look at Hofzinser, Elliott, or even (gasp) Erdnase?

However, it natters not. I do understand that Roy is making a private video for his family.

Matt Field

Delighted that he is making a private DVD for his family and certainly I'd love to see a performance DVD for any of the old Masters. A DVD of the nature that you suggested, "in conversation with........." would have been a very suitable one for Roy to make.

Some who responded here to my post seem to have misunderstood what I meant by "COPY". I wasn't referring to the physical act of burning a copy of a DVD but the, sometime unconscious, act of imitation that we see all too often. Books require a little more attention and study while forcing the reader to use his own performance style.

May I also add, should Roy Walton ever decide to make a DVD as a testament to his many years of magic I would hope that he would chose someone like yourself who would treat it with the respect it would deserve. You did Karl Fulvis proud.

Your talk on Karl Fulvis provided a wonderful insight into this great writer and creative genius with all his personal idiosyncrasies ..............and for those who haven't seen it you might provide a link to it. Probably the best talk on a living legend ever given by a man who wasn't in close contact with his subject.

I knew John Ramsay from 1955 to his death in 1962 and never saw him with a fake cigar. However, Roy met him several years before me and obviously he did. I can only remember John using imitation lit cigarettes and in a restaurant when he knew a waitress was near, he would apparently in an absent-minded moment, put the cigarette on the tablecloth, then watch her reaction with great amusement.

There's a photo on Roy's wall from when Ramsay was quite old (it would have been during the time you knew him). It's in a theatre of some kind, and he has a cigar. Roy told me that it was a fake one that he used after he was told to stop smoking?

About a year or so after I got back into magic, I ended up living in London, England. When I first arrived, Pat Page was working at Davenport's and sold me Roy's "Cascade." At the time, I'd never heard of either Roy or the Elmsley count. By the time I left England, I had every Roy Walton book, trick or note I could find. His work changed my magic life!

I have seen the photo and it was before I met John. He was 78 when I first met him and just before then he had his case of props stolen on a bus and only managed to replace some of them. I can only assume that the cigar was one of the missing items as I never saw him with it. He told me that when he smoked he never inhaled which could be one of the reasons why he lived to be almost 85. Years ago, it could have been the 70` or 80`s I`m not sure, Roy did a guest appearance on each episode of an evening chat show on Scottish television hosted by a radio DJ called Adrian Love, but don`t know if any of the recordings still exist.

I read a month ago that The Complete Walton Vol 3 was being printed, which is great. I sent an email to the Davenports asking when the book was ready for shipping? The book will be ready for shipping early next week. Thats great news

I remember Howard Lyons always trying to get Roy to lecture in Canada and always being turned down to Howard's great frustration. In those days I was virtually commuting between Canada and the UK and Howard would ask me to convey messages to Roy whenever I was in Glasgow that he wanted him to lecture. He never did.

I really like this thread! Mr. Walton sounds very cool--so modest and unassuming for such a brilliant genius.

Does anyone have any more Roy Walton stories/insights they would care to share?

(Someday, I would love to read an in-depth profile of Mr. Walton in Genii or listen to/see an interview with him online, but it doesn't seem like that's in the cards at this time. If I should ever be lucky enough to get to Scotland, I know exactly where I'll be going straightaway.)

PS: I think the picture referenced above may be the one printed in Genii, November 2008, pg 37

There was a brief Q&A with Roy in an old issue of Opus magazine. In a different issue there is a tribute from Roy to mark the death of Dai Vernon. Roy really admired Vernon. No surprise there.

I am hoping the old issues of Opus issue will be scanned and available to download online sometime soon. I have encouraged the guys at Opus (and Chris Wasshuber) to see if this is possible. Opus was an amazing magazine. Some of the best writing in magic. But very much focused on what was happening at the time. So not sure how well all that will age. Also - the trick policy at Opus was interesting. They tended to focus on one really good trick each issue. Rather than lots and lots of tricks. It was an important and fresh new voice back at a time when there was very little honesty to be found in magic magazines. My favourite column in the magazine was Richard Kaufman's. Every sentence in his column seemed to spark a new feud. lol

EMC registrants received a pdf of Volume One of Opus as a free gift. On the first page, JJ and Chris Power said to look out for digital versions of Volumes 2 through 5 "which will be available shortly" and apparently they were for a period of time: http://cardopolis.blogspot.com/2011/07/ ... azine.html

I agree with Mr. Mckay: Hopefully, the Opus clan will be able to strike a deal to offer these once more.

PS: I really liked the product reviews in Volume One--very searing at times, but honest and informed.

I still remember Howard Lyons being frustrated that he could never get Roy Walton to do a lecture. He tried and tried and tried and Roy always refused. I think I mentioned this to Roy and he just smiled.

I always used to go into Tam Shepherd's magic shop when I was in Glasgow. Roy amused me greatly when he made remarks somewhat derogatory about professional magicians in general. Since it has often been the custom for professionals to look down on amateurs I found it quite refreshing to find that Roy tended to look down on professionals. Or at least the more egotistical of them. I got the impression that he got irritated with their bragging when they came into his shop.

I always found him very pleasant. I said I would get him complimentary tickets to the Glasgow Ideal Homes Exhibition where I was working. He refused saying, "I never accept free tickets to an event or a show where a magician is appearing" He felt he should pay just the same as everyone else. And he did indeed show up at the exhibition and paid full price. I admired that in him. A man of principle.

He sent me a message when my book, "The Lives of a Showman" first came out to say his daughters purchased it for him as a present and he enjoyed it.

I always found him a real gentleman. And a modest one which is a rarity in magic.

I later met him in 1997, I think, when we both were awarded fellowships at the AMA Awards Banquet. We were seated together and did a few things under the table. He was extremely modest and BOY OH BOY was he incredibly good with cards.

That was at the Blackpool magic convention in Feb. 2008. I interviewed Roy for a cover feature in the magazine I was editing, The Magic Circular (June 2008). I had a question for Roy about his move Trigger that I was having trouble with, and he showed me several effects using it which blew me away.

Joe Mckay wrote:There was a brief Q&A with Roy in an old issue of Opus magazine. In a different issue there is a tribute from Roy to mark the death of Dai Vernon. Roy really admired Vernon. No surprise there.

I am hoping the old issues of Opus issue will be scanned and available to download online sometime soon. I have encouraged the guys at Opus (and Chris Wasshuber) to see if this is possible. Opus was an amazing magazine. Some of the best writing in magic. But very much focused on what was happening at the time. So not sure how well all that will age. Also - the trick policy at Opus was interesting. They tended to focus on one really good trick each issue. Rather than lots and lots of tricks. It was an important and fresh new voice back at a time when there was very little honesty to be found in magic magazines. My favourite column in the magazine was Richard Kaufman's. Every sentence in his column seemed to spark a new feud. lol

Pretty sure OPUS Magazine was already digitized a while back and Chris Power was selling it somewhere.

erdnasephile wrote:Someday, I would love to read an in-depth profile of Mr. Walton in Genii or listen to/see an interview with him online, but it doesn't seem like that's in the cards at this time. If I should ever be lucky enough to get to Scotland, I know exactly where I'll be going straightaway.

There was a nice article on Roy Walton with a couple of tricks in the August 1998 issue of Genii.

I met him a couple of times in his shop in Glasgow and he was very open and easy to talk to, though last time (a few years ago) he said he doesn't manage to come in every day any more.

erdnasephile wrote:Someday, I would love to read an in-depth profile of Mr. Walton in Genii or listen to/see an interview with him online, but it doesn't seem like that's in the cards at this time. If I should ever be lucky enough to get to Scotland, I know exactly where I'll be going straightaway.

There was a nice article on Roy Walton with a couple of tricks in the August 1998 issue of Genii.

I met him a couple of times in his shop in Glasgow and he was very open and easy to talk to, though last time (a few years ago) he said he doesn't manage to come in every day any more.

Hi, Mr. Corrie: I just pulled a copy of the Aug 1998 Genii (has Dan Witkowski on the cover) and went through the whole issue--for the life of me, I can't find the article you referenced. Is is possible it's August of another year? Many thanks!